Abstract: In this paper, the tourism market area of Chinese prefecture-level cities is calculated on tourism gravity model, combined with GIS. At the same time, this paper analyzes tourism market potential of Chinese prefecture-level cities based on the above model to provide a theoretical basis for the development of regional tourism. Firstly, the first market area, the second market area and the third market area obviously show distance decay. And the prefecture-level cities that the market domain can cover the whole country are not much, accounting for less than 1/5, only 68. The tourism market potential in the most parts of our country is small. In addition, the market area of Chinese prefecture-level cities is affected by geographical location, natural environment and regional development policies. Secondly, 346 Chinese prefecture-level cities can be divided into four kinds of cities by clustering according to the market area. There are mainly differences among tourism resources, traffic location and economy, which affects the tourism market potential. Thirdly, in all cities of every province, there are 19 provinces that the market area of the capitals is the largest. In other 8 provinces, the market area of capitals is not the largest. Therefore, measures can be taken as soon as possible. If the tourism resources have been all developed, tourism services and ecological environment should be strengthen. However, while tourism resources are still to be developed, the way of own unique development should be found to expand its tourism market potential. Convenient transportation will improve the status quo, meanwhile building airports and high-speed rail is now feasible solution.